ENGLISHI said before, in previous publications, that in United States there is a sort of "cult" for big sized stuff and recently, when I traveled there, I realized that it’s trait that virtually identifies this country somehow...

You don’t need to be an anthropologist or sociologist to reach that conclusion, but thank GOD, I was able to witness what it involves with my own eyes...

The first thing I saw was the big John F. Kennedy International Airport; then the big city of which it’s part: New York; then its big buildings (specially in the Manhattan - New York District/Borough/County); its big roads, particularly the expressways; its big people (of course, there are people of all sizes, but specially XXXL size and I mean it !!! =PPPPP)...

Everything is big in that country of which New York is a big slice, I was amazed, anyone who has gone there, will know that I’m not exaggerating; you can see this in such everyday things as food, I mean, even the portions of food you receive anywhere were big (too big for my taste and let’s say that I like to eat) so, it’s no wonder that vehicles, another everyday element of the modern society, are predominantly big too.

Referring to an aspect of such car industry, I would say that United States is the land of pickup trucks and I don’t mean that there are no other countries producing consistently this kind of vehicles, but the american pickup trucks establish a standard of their own.

Much of this singular standard is represented in the following statement: when we are talking about american pickup trucks, size does matter !!!...

General Motors and Chrysler have a good share of pickups with airs of trucks, but Ford has mastered the art of making pickup trucks and actually, is the rival to win; not in vane, this brand has the leadership in this segment where the competition is hard.

Today, the guest for this publication is just one of the products that has helped to keep the brand of the blue oval on its pedestal: the 2000 Ford F-250 2+2 SuperCab Styleside XL Super Duty, one of the models available for the tenth generation of the F-Series, but part of an independent line (Super Duty), that is designated either as a light duty truck or as a heavy duty pickup truck (Class 2b truck, according to United States classification).

The Super Duty line was introduced in 1998, as a segmentation of the F-Series and while it has certain similarities with the base model, namely the F-150, which is aimed to common buyers, the F-250, F-350, F-450 and F-550 (Super Duty models) are aimed to commercial buyers.

With a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) of 8,800 lb (3,992 kg), a Maximum Payload Rating (MPR) of 3,560 (1,615 kg), an attractive and manly overall design where the stylists Andrew Jacobson and Moray Callum were involved, long-term reliability, a roomy cabin, decent fuel mileage (considering its size and purpose), a more than decent power thanks to a 444 cu in, 7.3 L, V8 Powerstroke Turbo Diesel engine, rated up to 275 hp, coupled to a 5-speed manual transmission with overdrive and lots of torque, you can understand the favoristism it enjoys among people who want a hard working partner !!!...

It’s been a while since the last time I published a pickup truck by Johnny Lightning and althought my interest in these items has grown over time, it has been a hard task for me to get them, actually harder than with other diecast brands which also produce this kind of vehicle in scale.

There are several factors involved in the difficulty getting them, but I think there are at least two that stand out: first, realism in the american pickup trucks made by Johnny Lightning is far superior than what you find in the mainlines or adult lines of brands like: Hot Wheels, Matchbox or Majorette and at par or even better than those made by Jada, Racing Champions, ERTL, Yatming, Revell, Muscle Machines, Greenlight or M2Machines among others (with greater merit, because Johnny Lightning works in smaller scales than most of the brands already mentioned, achieving equal or greater level of detail).

And the second factor is directly related: more and more collectors are noticing such outstanding features and buying them accordingly, since Johnny Lightning manage smaller figures of production than other brands, the availability is becoming an issue; we are talking in average of between 15,000 and 20,000 units of each model for most lines in JL, while, for instance, Hot Wheels easily produces 1,000,000 or more units of each model from the mainline; in other words, any given model by JL is a limited edition per se.

Now, lately local sellers in the secondary market, who are anyway the only option to get Johnny Lightning items, are becoming increasingly more neglectful in terms of customer service and reservation fulfillment so, I’m becoming increasingly more convinced that it’s futile to wear out yourself trying to make deals with people who are not serious and actually don’t care about the hobby or the collectors’ needs.

Nonetheless, there are still a few fellow collectors and importers (every time less) who are acquiscent enough to take care of their customers and it’s nice to make deals with them; precisely one of them helped me to get the replica introduced in this review more than 5 years ago.

This model belongs to the 2002 Muscle Trucks Series, which consists of 6 models from different times and car brands; for some reason several pickup trucks available in the Johnny Lightning catalog were plainly omitted and there was material for more releases, but this series only had two, which is a pity.

Despite the quality of the mold, it has been used very few times (6 releases, as far as I know) and it’s one of the models that truly deserves a second chance in this new stage of the Johnny Lightning brand, as part of Round 2.

It has full diecast construction (body and chassis); the paint job in silver with fine metal flake finishing looks really good in this model and the complement is a decoration with tampos and/or decals featuring sporty stripes in black on the hood and side panels, with additional tampos for the head lights, front grille and bumper, windows moldings, tail lights and rear bumper.

The windows are clear while the detailed interiors were worked in black; it has multipart wheels featuring realistic Cragar rims design in chrome, with plastic slick tires (that this time had a quality control issue, since one of them was broken and I didn’t notice it at the time of purchase, "occupational hazards", I guess) and it was made in China...

Isa 24:18-23 "And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously."

4 comments:

It will be a bit difficult to get Johnny Lighting toys as they had since gone out of production. Quality goes a long way and the toy spells it out with the amount of diecast and metallic paint works. The car itself has a practical application for moving stuffs and people. Suitable for family handy family man IMHO.

Johnny Lightning was rescued again by Thomas Lowe in 2016, he was behind its first revival in 1995, then we will have more models of this prestigious brand around and also brand new casts, fortunately !!!... I always have had admiration for this kind of vehicles, they are basically work tools, but over time they were involved in more fields and now you can see luxury pickup trucks, racing pickup trucks, everyday pickup trucks, etc... Hence, for me is natural to get this kind of models in scale and Johnny Lightning is a great option out there !!!... =D

Pick up truck - used to be the bread and butter of transportation for farmers but nowadays even the folks in town and city area love to own them for what ever non-farming purpose including but not limited to transporting illegal chemicals, weapons, marijuana supplies for the good people of New York City LOL LOL LOL and some of them pick up truck can drift nowadays, amazing but true and that's the way it is now. Don't be surprise if the next Optimus Prime will be a Chevrolet Silverado or maybe the latest muscular Ford Ranger.

HAHAHA... Unfortunately, in the evolution of pickup trucks their purpose has changed quiet a bit over time and yeah, it looks like they are appealing for drug cartels and guerilla groups alike, I mean, really...

On the other hand, they never ceased to be work tools and the pickup truck featured here is a serious ride for heavy duty tasks in its segment... It’s big, big enough to be the container of Optimus Prime matrix, I think so, but for some strange reason Ford vehicles were used for villain roles in the latest Transformers movies... =D

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